


Elementals

by A_Dying_Wolf_Dying_With_Dignity



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Blood and Violence, Dark Thoughts, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Smut, Heavy Angst, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Mental Instability, Nature Magic, POV Armin Arlert, POV Eren Yeager, Psychological Drama, Psychological Trauma, Self-Destruction, Self-Harm, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-18
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-09 11:33:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4347059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Dying_Wolf_Dying_With_Dignity/pseuds/A_Dying_Wolf_Dying_With_Dignity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It has been five years since I pushed myself back into society, hiding the existence of the Elementals and our powers. As time passed on, I've come to realize that even though I escaped the facility, I have not, nor have I ever, truly been free.</p><p>---</p><p>Long after readjusting to society after the night he is one of the Elementals who escaped the government facility they were trapped in, seventeen-year-old Armin Arlert becomes self destructive and he is slowly losing control of his powers and himself. Then comes along fellow Elemental Eren Yeager, who finds himself unable to leave Armin alone when they realize they share common origins. Despite his attempts to bring him happiness, he keeps watching him destroy himself from the inside-out.</p><p>His state becoming even more unstable with each day, Eren must find a way to save Armin from himself before it is too late.</p><p>---</p><p>A genuine smile, that was all I've wanted to see from him. No more tears, no more pain, no more frowning. If only I can get him to smile all the time. If only I knew how to bring him solace - peacefulness, even - but Armin is complicated. The only smiles I've ever seen him crack often are those formed by despair eating him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue - Jailbreak

**Author's Note:**

> I was inspired by an RP I did with my friends to write this story, so I hope you all like it! This is going to become progressively dark, I promise.

Sirens blare throughout the hallway and pound into my eardrums. I've never been that sensitive to sound, but I know who is. We all thought that after the alarms go off, it's everyone for themselves, but we still take the time to help each other escape. For this I grab Historia before she collapses to her knees with her palms covering her ears and I guide her away from the security guards.

"Is everyone accounted for?" one of us at the front of our group calls out. He cries out each of our names to make sure no one was left behind. When all of us are heard, he stays behind to make sure the rest of us pass him towards the exit. "Make sure women and children are in front!" Historia and I glance at him and he makes eye contact with us. I nod as a silent response to his silent orders, pushing Historia to run faster than me.

The deafening sound of gunfire pierces the air already filled with sirens, shouting, and screaming. Historia whimpers at the sound but keeps going. I press one hand against the small of her back to make sure she doesn't slow down. I know she can't take this and she knows that I know. I know she wants things to be quiet. If she tried, she could make her wish come true. All she has to do is scream. Her screams are powerful enough to stop bullets and even break the sound barrier. Despite what she can do, she refuses to do so. She is just as terrified of herself as the rest of us are of each other.

Our group keeps running until the soles of our feet are sore and our legs are just about to give out. Some of the healthier men and women - the ones who know what to do and how to control themselves properly - cease to run in order to buy the rest of us time. They'll eventually die, I'm sure, but if they are willing to sacrifice themselves to save us, then we will honor them if we succeed in escaping. Now behind us, we can hear more gunshots and cries of pain. Whether they belonged to the security guards or to those of us, we would never know. None of us dared to look back to find out. It was better none of us did.

Finally, after sprinting and running through what seemed like countless corridors, we hit the end of the line. The people who came up with this plan knew using this route would result in our group and the others that took different directions reach walls instead of doors. They already knew all of the possible exits such as doors and windows would be immediately closed off once the alarms go off and the sirens start screeching. It was why among the women and children, many of the teenagers around mine and Historia's ages were assigned to be placed in front if they already were fast runners.

Pushing Historia into another group member's arms, I bid her a brief farewell before I run back to the end of the group where those who originally stayed behind were still with us. As long as she is safe, I have no other priorities other than to make it out of this place alive. This also means that I need to help in whatever way possible.

"Aren't you a bit young to be helping us out, Arm'?" a slightly older girl by the name of Sasha asks me. I glance at her to see her grin when I reach her left side.

"Maybe, but we're in this together, aren't we?" I hold out my hand for her to take, which she does. "Give me something to feed on, got it?"

The security guards charge down the hall, nearing us and the rest of our group now behind us. Sasha squeezes my hand. No matter how tough she acts, I know she is still afraid of herself and what has become of her here, what has become of all of us here. I squeeze back to reassure her that we are going to be getting out of here, we just have to buy some more time.

She hears the guns fire before any of us do. Matter of fact, she is able to hear the triggers about to be pulled. We act fast together to dodge the bullets which end up hitting the shields some of those behind us created to protect those not fighting. I'm pulled closer to her until my hair is brushing against the edge of her shoulder. Her left arm wraps around my waist to secure a hold on me while I do the same around hers with my right arm after she lets go of my hand. I hold up my left fist close to her chin while she uses her free right hand to steady my slightly shaking wrist. When she gives me a quick squeeze, I know she is ready.

She takes a deep breath.

At the same time, I snap my fingers, and the familiar crackling of a small flame comes to life above my now outstretched palm.

Together, with her long exhale coming out of her slightly puckered lips and my fire, we become a superhuman flamethrower. The fire bursts out and flares towards the security guards until it hits them. My fire is unique; not only does it set their clothes alight, but it goes straight down to their skin until I'm sure their blood is catching fire. With nothing to put them out with, they'll be dead within minutes of excruciating pain.

Our attack gives us at least two more minutes before another wave of security guards comes in. This facility can only hold so many, but years of living here has allowed us to memorize this place for this very escape plan.

While a few others take care of the next line of guards, Sasha and I separate and get to watch those in front finally become charged up enough to combine their abilities the way we did, only this time, this was a mix of water turned to ice and powerful punches and kicks of those who possess earthen abilities. The ice from the _Wasser_ people is so strong that it seeps down to the very core of the wall and to the other side that it does not matter how much cement and metal was used to build it up. It became weakened enough for the _Terra_ people to punch and kick it all down with ease, crumbling under their force and leaving behind a massive hole for us to use.

Everyone is still accounted for when we help each other through the hole and onto the ground in the outdoors. Those with water abilities quickly team up with the _Luft_ people to form a wall of thick ice at a faster pace over the hole to block the guards from catching up to us. With not much time to stay out here and take in the feel of actually being outdoors without supervision for once in our lives, we all break off into another sprint into the forest.

I find Historia among the women in front when I force myself to run faster. Rather than running herself, Ymir is carrying her in her arms, not feeling any stress from the extra weight. I direct myself to run alongside them just to make sure she does not fall off.

Several minutes pass by as the trees of the forest begin to cover us from the moonlight and envelop us in darkness. Even though most of us are ready to collapse from exhaustion, we push ourselves to keep going, the way we did while we were still running through the facility. Our stamina - increased by living in that vile place - has gotten us this far. We can still make it another mile without slowing down; by this time, though, all of the children have gotten tired and are now being carried, but that does nothing to bring problems.

We stop running and resort to jogging as a last resort, still wanting to cover a lot of ground before we take our first break. According to the men and women who have been leading our group, we should have managed to distance ourselves at least four miles from the facility, so we should be able to rest soon once we find a river where we can take a drink - especially those among the _Wasser_ people, who need the rehydration more than anybody. It has become worrying, however, that we have yet to come by any of the other groups who took different escape routes. For this it was another reason why we needed to hurry towards a river soon, so we can somehow signal the others of our presence without the possibility of grabbing the attention of anyone from the facility who may still be trying to hunt us down.

The spotting of the river brings relief to us as we all near the edge and get down on our knees to take a drink. I cup my hands and let them wade for a bit in the cool water before bringing it back up to the surface so I can sip, not caring about the droplets rolling down my chin and neck like the rest of us. The water tastes sweet and refreshing against my tongue. For all of us, this is the taste of freedom.

From here on, we are free.

I volunteer to send out a signal to see if the other groups have made it out. I climb up one of the trees until my head is peaking through the foliage of the top's highest branches. My face becomes exposed to moonlight and the more active winds up here. To be able to see the moon is a rarity for all of us, so to see it up in the sky among the sparkling stars is a blessing to me.

Snapping my fingers, I conjure up a small flame like the one I made back at the facility. At first I let it dance around my fingers. It brings a pleasant warmth to my hand in what is becoming a chilly night. Then I do as I was instructed. I command the flame to fly out of my hand and head several feet away from me before I have it be sent high into the air. It goes off in a small but noticeable burst. I wait in silence for the rest of the signals.

One by one, there are others that are sent off to the same direction and spot as where I sent my flame, where the fly up and burst. I quickly count how many I see, each representing the number of groups in all. In the beginning, we started out with six of them, all composed of thirty people each. It was hard to get through the halls with such numbers, but our speed made up for that. If even one is missing, it would mean that either the group was captured, MIA, or, worse, killed off. Thirty people could possibly be dead and we would not know it once we begin to scatter throughout society when we reach it.

After counting and doing a recount of what I saw, I sigh in relief and head back down to relay my sightings. All six have been reported to be fine in the other parts of this vast forest.

When small fires are made to bring us warmth in the cold and our bodies have been nourished by the clean water of the river, we are given the opportunity to then get a quick sleep. To me, the soft grass below me, a pile of leaves pillowing my head, and the fire I made for myself was better than the bed I slept on back there at that wretched facility.

It is one of the first nights I have been able to fall asleep without any troubles.

 

 

In the early morning after that fateful night, where the sun first began to peak out, we are rested enough to keep going via walking and jogging until we reach the border of a city called Hermina. We view the city from far away on a grassy field. For some of us, we have not seen such tall buildings since before we were brought to the facility for whatever reason. For others, this was a completely new idea. I am a member of the former side. Although the memories of being first admitted into the facility were faint and flickering, having taken place when I was only seven years old, I could still recall my parents taking me out on drives in a small car through a city like this.

_Mom and Dad..._

Their faces are only a memory that I am slowly losing now. I can barely grasp on to the colors of their blonde hair and blue eyes which I inherited as such, but how they exactly looked like is becoming a blur in my head. They came with me to the facility and were forced to participate, but they refused to let me be experimented on while I was growing up. When the final straw was gone, I was forced to watch their punishment for trying to protect me. Despite the images of their faces fading away, I will forever remember watching blood pour out of them as they were shot to death right before my eyes for disobedience.

 _"Don't be stupid when it's your turn to face the serums, kid."_ That's what one of the shooters told me when he passed me after the deed was done.

I'm sure those two would be proud to see that I've managed to survive long enough to escape.

Our group does not go into the city right away. There were children who needed to be registered as citizens since they were born in the facility. The rest of us needed excuses as to why our identities are being revealed in censuses and such again. Even if our names are recorded, it's not like the government can put bounties on our heads and hunt us down. According to the creators of our escape plan, our experiments are being kept secret from the general public. Revealing the existence of them, of what we've been through, will cause the citizens to develop in great distrust against the government in response. That risk could not be taken, but it does not mean there would still be attempts to hunt us down; these attempts would simply be in private, where no witnesses are to be found.

For this, we must always stick together with at least one other while we scatter throughout Hermina and other cities in order to readjust - or adjust, for the children who have never been in society before since their birth - to life among the public. After a year of staying together, we are to start spreading out as much as possible. It would be dangerous for us to be staying together for too long, after all.

I hold hands with Historia while she also holds hands with Ymir; I can already tell they plan on sticking together just like always. She closes her eyes tilts her head up to feel the breeze brushing against us. Being of the _Luft_ , she enjoys being able to feel the wind. It relaxes her and reassures her that everything will be alright from now on.

"Let's go," I say, and we travel down the field towards the city together.

 

 

It has been five years since I pushed myself back into society, hiding the existence of the Elementals and our powers. As time passed on, I've come to realize that even though I escaped the facility, I have not, nor have I ever, truly been free.

 

 

The small, secretly constructed world of magic is created into three stages. The first stage is elemental magic. As the name suggests, the first stage revolves around the basic four elements of nature - earth, air, fire, and water. For me, my destined element was discovered to be fire. I've been learning how to control my powers since then.

The second stage is technical magic, where there are branches with elemental magic. Using the element you possess, you are able to learn specific parts of that element. It's like how ice is derived from water or how whirlwinds come from air. For me, I can control light and darkness, even if it means my soul becomes darker every time I use my powers.

The third stage is known as industrial magic. _Elementals_ \- as we have been called - all have our own special abilities that come from both our elemental and technical magic. All industrial magic is unique to each Elemental. No two abilities are ever the same, though there are cases where there may be those that are oddly similar in some areas but still overall different.

For me, the industrial magic I possess must always be kept a secret. If anyone were to find out just how dangerous my Elemental powers were, I'd have to be sent back to the place where it all started - some government science facility in an unknown location. I don't want to go back there to face those painful experiments again. I'll just have to learn how to control my powers by myself and in private.

Us Elementals, we're considered the secret taboo of the world because of our magic, but it's the government's fault I became this monster trapped in this once normal shell of a male teenager. If they didn't want us to be brought out into the public so soon, they should not have made us in the first place, and they also should not have made escaping that facility so easy. If they did not want to create a monster inside me, they should not have done any experiments on me in the first place. Simple as that, and yet here I am, hiding from the government like the rest of the Elementals, where we are able to escape because revealing the existence of the Elementals would cause the normal citizens to grow distrustful of them for doing these experiments behind their backs.

If only my powers never existed. If only those serums that turned me into an Elemental never existed. Maybe then the world would be a better place, and maybe then I would find peace. But that seems to no longer be an option.

So, for now, I will remain cursed until I die.


	2. Adaptation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Where do you work again?" she asks me after closing the book and following out of my bedroom. She closes my door for me.
> 
> "Forgetful as ever, huh?" I lightly tease her. "This is the fifth time you've asked."
> 
> Her cheeks become nearly as red as her hair. "S-Spit it out already!"
> 
> "Alright, alright. I work at that one ice cream parlor at the plaza."
> 
> The nine-year-old beside me widens her eyes. "Get me a free sundae, will you?!"
> 
> "Fine, if you can do me a small favor and stop covering pages of my books in ash whenever a character dies."
> 
> "Deal!"
> 
> ...
> 
> I bid Isabel a goodbye with a promise of bringing home some dessert for her. Once she's gone, I lose my smile as I enter the passenger seat in the front.
> 
> Lying to her, to everyone except Annie, who figured me out some time ago - it made my stomach twist.
> 
> "She didn't suspect you of anything?" Annie says. I nod.
> 
> "She's smart, but she's still nine. Still oblivious."
> 
> "I don't think anyone deserves to be oblivious. It only sets them up for heartbreak later on."
> 
> "Agreed, but we're still hypocrites. That fact is unavoidable."

Clutching clumps of her hair, already on her knees, Historia cries out in pain. She crawls to me whilst covering her ears. Her voice is barely audible among the sound of sharp metal against glass, but I know what she wants. She wants me to make the noises go away. As a _Luft_ , one who has power over air, she has more sensitive hearing. It's ironic, though, the way she can't take sounds at this pitch and volume when her screams are just the same.

 

As an _Ignis_ , one who possesses fire abilities, I'm not as sensitive to these sounds as she is. When I do cover my ears with my hands, it is a nearly soundproof barrier. No one knows why this is, but perhaps it's because the heat I force through my hands creates this strange humming sound that thickens when they're close to someone's face. Historia always appreciates it when I help her by covering her ears.

Still, I keep my hands to my sides. It's not like I don't want to help her. It's that I _can't_. My hands are covered by black thermal stabilizing fingerless gloves. With my palms restricted from allowing any fire to rest freely upon them, I can't conjure up the heat she wishes for. If I take off my gloves, both of us will be forced to face even more punishments for our disobedience.

This was a test to make sure we stopped struggling against experiments they performed on us. If we can endure punishments, we can endure experiments, as they told us during our first punishment. She has to last another minute without my assistance and then it will be my turn. 

The minute passes slowly before the sound ceases to play throughout this room we are being confined in. She now lays on her back with tears rolling down her face and her hands still covering her ears. I'm not strong enough to carry her for long, but enough to pick her up and take her outside the room when the door opens. I am pushed back inside once she is out, and I stand in the center of the room, awaiting my punishment. 

Winds coming from the air ducts fill the room. At first it is a calming breeze, but soon the temperature drastically drops to what must be the low twenties, Fahrenheit. Instinctively, I raise my hands up and rub my exposed upper arms, as they forced me to remove the jacket covering me. Being unable to remove my gloves means I cannot give myself the heat I wanted in order to combat the cold.

I begin to shiver as the room's temperature drops again, reaching the negatives. When I exhale, I can see my breath before my eyes in a small, quickly disappearing cloud of mist. By this time my body is numb and my movements are slower than usual. Only wearing a t-shirt and shorts, I can easily feel the winds pick up against my skin which was already pricked with goosebumps and the temperature change from colder to freezing. By this time, I feel like I'm completely frozen. My body temperature has long since disappeared. 

Yet this is only the beginning of my punishment. 

Spots on the walls open. Cold smoke fills the room to the point I can't see anything past a few feet around me. Unable to cope with standing any longer, I force myself onto my knees on the hard tile floor. The people outside seemed to be expecting this, however, because when I fall, my knees are the first to make contact with dry ice, the sting searing into my skin as it sticks to me, before the rest of my legs do so. I try to remain in a crouching position in order to pry the ice off of me, but my fingers end up being stabbed by the same feeling of the ice being so freezing that it was _burning_ me. It was ironic in it's own way.

Minutes pass by before I can feel the room grow warmer once more. I barely feel the change due to my body being completely numb all over save for the pain in my legs from the contact with the dry ice. The guards enter the room to take hold of me, using tongs to harshly pull the dry ice off my legs that bits of my skin are torn off, and then drag me out of the room. Historia rushes to embrace me to bring some warmth back to me, telling me that I was so pale my skin was even turning blue. Her hug alone ignited the fire I was infused with.

We were only ten years old at the time. Anyone ages ten and older are qualified to receive the serum that turns us into the Elementals we are today. It was hard during our first experiments, not allowed to writhe too much in pain when all sorts of needles are pricked into us to give us these powers and activate the beginning stage of elemental magic. Compared to the punishments we received later on, our first ones were like child's play to them, but we still suffered. If they were to have given us a punishment more extreme - one that did not match up with our skill level - we would surely be dead already. Back then, Historia was new to her newfound sensitivity to loud and or high-pitched sounds, and I was getting used to my body heat being taken away by extremely low temperatures. Many of my punishments were like that, including being dunked in a tank of ice water with only shorts on; having dry ice stick to my skin and once even having one forced into my mouth until my mouth was so raw I couldn't eat or speak for days without hurting; and being buried alive in manmade snow with only the increase in my body heat from past experiments keeping me alive.

It went by like this for some time until we got the hang of our abilities and pain tolerance, so we received less punishments as a result. We and the other Elementals helped each other and we all became close. We were like one big family. To have one in a place like that seemed to be a necessary part to surviving. As long as we were family to each other, no one faced anything by themselves. I'm not saying they replaced my parents - no, I don't think that can happen. What I mean is that the family the Elementals created helped me endure living in the facility for so long.

Maybe this family is the reason why it's taken me so long to finally start snapping.

 

 

The first thing I wake up to in the morning is a young girl with reddish-brown hair pulled back into pigtails and green eyes sitting on my stomach. My inability to shift my weight while trying to remain asleep makes me open my eyes sooner or later. I dig my elbows into the mattress to prop my upper body up to stare at her blankly, still trying to blink the sleep away from my eyes. She stares back at me with a grin on her face.

"Morning, Armin!" she cheerfully sings, her voice a little bit off pitch.

I sigh, bringing one of my hands up to rub my eyes and then comb my fingers through my hair. "What do you want, Isabel?" 

"Levi says you're going to miss breakfast if you don't get your butt downstairs."

"Of course I will. Maybe if you get off of me, I can go eat."

She complies with my wish and I heave my legs over the edge of the bed. I stretch my arms out and twist my waist and back until I feel the satisfying cracking sounds. While I use a mirror to look at myself while I use a comb to fix my bed head, Isabel tells me the menu for this morning - toast, cereal, fruits, and bacon - and I know immediately that Petra cooked this time. She, Levi, and the other adults who watch over me, Isabel, and several other teens and children take turns cooking each day, and she by far is the best out of them. 

Unlike the facility, her food has never had a moment of tasting bland.

Taking Isabel up into my arms - I really have to stop my habit of carrying her, she's getting too heavy for a nine-year-old - I bring us out of my room and down the long hallway where most of the bedrooms are located. I even carry her carefully down four flights of stairs, as the bedrooms are on the third and fourth floors, until we reach the dining room. Everyone else is already awake and helping themselves to what Petra cooked up in the kitchen connected to this room by a door. When they see me setting Isabel down on the floor, they greet me either verbally, with a wave, or both.

I take the plate of food and bowl of cereal Petra already set up for me while I was asleep with a small thanks in reply. I've insisted countless times that she doesn't have to do this, but she's quite stubborn for someone in her late twenties; of course, we can't speak much of her age since she looks so young, and even if we did speak she would undeniably say she is still twenty-one. Being one of the only women among the adults who agreed to stay and take care of the children in our group from the facility five years ago, she works very hard and acts as a mother towards all of us. 

I sit myself in the empty seat between Sasha and Jean at the table that can somehow fit eighteen people. Everyone else is engrossed in a conversation with each other while the only thing I'm paying attention to is not choking on my cereal while I chew on a a cluster of it with some of the milk making it soggy in my mouth before swallowing. When my cereal is done, I set the leftover milk to the side to drink it at the end so I can focus on the small plate I was given that was topped with a small group of fruits, a slice of buttered toast, and two strips of bacon. My fruits end up in my stomach first, following the toast, and Sasha and I share my bacon upon her request since Petra won't let her get more after already devouring five strips.

"What sort of classes are you thinking of taking for college?" Petra asks while she sits across from me at the table with a mug of tea between her hands. 

My immediate response is one of my eyebrows lifting after I swallow the last of my bacon. "Didn't we already discuss this?" 

"Your two choices interest me. I like hearing you tell me about them. So, again, I'll ask you: What sort of classes are you thinking of taking for college?"

Senior year of high school ended about a month ago and I still have another month before I start attending Sina State University in the fall. There were several other schools that accepted my applications, but I chose S.S.U. out of all of them because the drive to here from there will take the least amount of time whether I stay there in a dorm or not. No matter how far any of us are, we Elementals still stick together. The children who are here tend to follow me around the most, so the trust I've established with them makes me the most qualified to be their main mentor when Levi and Erwin finish teaching me, Sasha, Jean, and Annie all we need to know about our powers in the future and it will be our turns to train them. All of these kids were still around their toddler ages - born while their parents faced the experiments - when we took them out of the facility, but discovering they had powers later made the rest of us realize that the scientists had broken their own rule of only using the serums on those ages ten and up just to speed up research and production. 

I tell Petra of my plans for college again. "Creative writing and biochemistry, like I've told you several times before." The two courses I'm primarily focusing on are opposites from each other, the way creative writing allows me to push my imagination while biochemistry is nearly absolute logic, but I like them both. Maybe Petra liked my choices because they are different in subject fields or maybe she understood that the two really aren't so different from each other after all the way I did. She's complicated like that. All Elementals are, in some way, shape, or form. 

"Armin, will you be helping me train the kids today?" Erwin asks me. Sometimes I forget this man is here because he's quiet, but not as quiet as Levi, of course.

Erwin was the leader of our group of Elementals from when we escaped the facility. Like Petra, he looks young for his age, only he's currently in his mid-thirties now and he is not afraid of shocking people with how old he really is compared to what they see. He makes a good leader because he knows how to remain calm in even the direst of situations and is able to form plans for all sorts of problems. Though he has become more relaxed since we settled down in this castle-like house - which we were able to occupy since it was completely abandoned when we found it and later bought after we became successful in earning and saving our money from it with the savings everyone had after rechecking into their bank accounts when possible - Erwin will become a cold and calculated man when need be. It's one of those qualities of his that is tough to not admire.

"As much I want to, I think I'll just do my own training today," I tell him. "Plus, Annie and I have work today and the day after tomorrow. I can help you tomorrow and two days after, though."

"Well, if you're going to train today before work, we'll start in an hour," Levi spoke up from where he stood, leaning against the frame of the door that leads to the kitchen. "That goes for all of you brats here. Do I make myself clear?" 

"Yes, sir," most of the teens and children say, including me.

Isabel and Farlan, a twelve-year-old who acts as an older brother to the former, stand up in their chairs and give him salutes with their fists over their chests where their hearts should be. They looked up to Levi and saw him more as an older brotherly figure rather than as a father. One day they came up with this salute to prove their were loyal to him. It soon became a regular thing among the rest of us too. 

Doing as those two did, all of us except Erwin got out of our seats and performed the salute, all six children standing on their chairs now. The only reaction we got out of Levi was a sigh and a "Tch" sound. 

"Get back to eating, brats, and that goes for all of you."

  

 

"Concentrate on becoming in touch with the fire infused into you."

My eyelids relax and droop closed. Erwin ties a blindfold around my head and over my eyes as part of the session. When his hands are no longer near my head, I tilt my chin down and place my hands over my knees while I sit in a crisscross formation on the floor. I practice my breathing exercises, the standard deep inhales and exhales. I listen to his footsteps fade as he walks away to where I last saw Levi standing behind me.

"What do you see, Armin?" 

"Darkness," I reply without opening my eyes.

"Alright, now focus that fire inside to cover your eyelids."

I do as I'm told, feeling the warmth in my stomach rush up my spine. It travels from my nape to around my skull until I feel heat in my eyes. I don't even have to open my eyes to know that there are three shadows creeping up in front of me. The light the fire created from the veins in my eyelids are all I need now.

"May I try a _Luft_ -standard move?" I ask. 

"Do as you want, kid," Levi replies this time.

"Yes, sir." 

Although I was discovered to have the powers of an _Ignis_ , it is possible for Elementals to learn moves from other elements. It all matters on how compatible elements are with each other. For example, _Ignis_ are least likely to master _Wasser_ skills, and _Wasser_ is compatible with both _Terra_ and _Luft_. Because oxygen fuels fire, it makes sense for _Ignis_ to be compatible with _Luft_ , which is equally compatible with the other three elements. With help from Historia and Sasha, both _Luft_ types, I've been able to learn some of the simpler moves. 

Unlike natural _Luft_ types - if being forced to be injected with several serums is considered the "natural" way of becoming an Elemental, though it is the original way - I don't have the ability to conjure winds upon command the way I can conjure balls of fire. I had to learn by _breaking down_ fire. It's very much unlike a _Luft_ because of my method, but it was the easiest way to create winds after some practice.

I summon a ring of balls of fire to float around me like a barrier. Before me, the shadows cease moving, waiting for what I was about to do next. I start by commanding the flames to grow smaller but to maintain the amount of heat they were radiating. The fire then goes out yet the heat remains in the air around me where I can feel it. Because these are the remnants of fire, even without the traces of embers or ashes, I am able to break it down. All of the heated air gathers into a ball I feel now close to my chest. I command it to rise above my head.

The ball of heat bursts into ripples and blasts past the owners of the three shadows. They tense up at what I've done and flinch when the air comes back to me, this time in three separate spheres. Each one has a different temperature absorbed from passing through the bodies. The one on the far left is like a cooling breeze and so is a _Luft_ type; the middle is sweet-smelling with the tainted hint of dirt and so is a _Terra_ type; and the humid feeling from the far right one belongs to a _Wasser_ type. I'm being pinned against those of the other three elements.

Now that I have an idea as to what I'll be dealing with, I've stalled for long enough. "Have at me," I say. 

One of them answers me with movement. The _Terra_ type takes out a small bag and empties the contents onto his hand. Behind the blindfold and my eyelids, I can see the powder-like substance being levitated out of his palm until he is holding the handle of what makes out to be a sword. Given that he is able to do this, I can guess he is using a mixture of metallic nano fibers and sand. He runs towards me and swings his sword down at me, but I react in time by unfolding my legs and sweeping them under his feet, knocking him to the ground.

While he's down and I'm now on my feet, I can hear splashing sounds behind me. The water I see standing by the _Wasser_ type when I turn around is spiraling into a trio of vortexes. She holds a Bo staff in one hand which she begins to twirl. The faster she spins it, the faster her watery vortexes move. 

Now beside her is the _Luft_ type, who holds no weapons as far as I can tell. She charges towards me to face me head on but I'm ready. Each punch she throws and kick she lifts is met with my arms blocking her each time. I feel a hard push from behind by the _Terra_ type as well as the butt of the handle of his makeshift sword in his hand. It catches me off guard enough for the _Luft_ to force wind around her right fist so that it makes a faster and harder impact with my chest. To keep myself from nearing the _Terra_ again, I manage to turn to my side.

The _Wasser_ seems to have been waiting for me, however. One of her water vortexes circles around me and strikes straight at my face before returning to normal water splashing to the floor. Water fills up my nose and my blindfold is ripped from me and more water splashes against my eyes, blinding me temporarily. My arms up in a defensive position in front of my face are the only things keeping me from taking a hit from the _Wasser_ type's staff, though it does sting my forearm when contact is made. 

I manage to wipe my eyes enough to finally see who my attackers are exactly. Jean and Sasha, the _Terra_ and _Luft_ types, are two faces I'm used to sparring with, but seeing Mina, a twelve-year-old _Wasser_ type, is what surprises me. I was honestly expecting Annie, who shares the same element as Mina, but also should have accounted that Mina is most skilled with fighting with the help of a weapon; the Bo staff should've given me that hint. Nonetheless, now that I know who I'm facing, I can recall their weaknesses.

The smirk I allow to curl on my lips makes them tense up because they know I've figured it out.

Jean tries to swing his sword at me again. When he begins to feel under pressure, his attacks are more wild and reckless. It makes it easier for me to dodge them and give me time to distance myself from as well as the girls, who moved out of the way to not get hit either. His focus on me keeps him from maintaining his balance when he slips on the puddles of water one of the vortexes from earlier made when the power in it was lost. When he feels something touch his head lightly, he groans softly and moves out of the way. 

Mina nears me with her Bo staff twirling back and forth in her hands while her other two vortexes spinning around her as a defensive maneuver. Her black pigtails bounce as she turns her staff behind her in an attempt to catch me off guard before hitting me. She must've forgotten what she's learned of _Ignis_ people, of how our sight is just as powerful as our touch. It's a breeze for me to grab her staff in my right hand even with the sharp sting from the sudden contact with the hard bamboo. Without a weapon, she doesn't have much of a strong offense as she maintains a well kept defense with her vortexes in front. She receives a tap on her shoulder and she steps aside to take a brief break, managing to pull her staff out of my grip when I loosen it. 

Sasha is a face I'm most familiar with. Even before we left the facility we constantly trained together whenever I couldn't get Historia to be my partner. Her _Luft_ abilities are stronger than hers anyways, so I'm able to get more exercise when we're paired up. We know each other and our moves well, not to also mention we're also the closest to each other personally besides my connections with Historia. After years of sparring with her, I've come to pick up on the rhythm of how she attacks at this moment - two swings towards the head, one kick towards the head, three jabs to the chest and abdomen, an uppercut directed at underneath the chin, and a sweep of her leg across the floor in an attempt to knock me over. She always changes up the pace somehow, but that is her usual strategy. Her real fighting power is in her legs, but she keeps this a secret and lets her partners figure out her moved themselves. I've managed to figure her out from experience.

Her grin tells me she's about to pull something different when we make some space between each other. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a lighter. After learning to control her powers and herself, she began indulging herself in learning another element to add on to her abilities as a _Luft_ , and in her case she's been studying and practicing _Ignis_ tricks. I'm the only teen in our group who is an _Ignis_ , so I'm constantly helping her improve in her lessons with me when none of the adults are available. Back at the facility, she was the first to learn how to break down particles such as how when I broke down fire to harness only the warm air it created. It was strange, really, how she can break down even the periodic elements in the atmosphere just to gather up oxygen and exhale that rather than carbon dioxide, but it was a useful move. It's how she and I came up with being a "superhuman flamethrower" together.

When she flicks on her lighter and takes a deep breath, I may as well say that Erwin and Levi are lucky the training center they've constructed in this large basement of this house is fireproof. The flames erupt from the small artificial light and our directed towards me, but I already have protection from them by forming my own wall of fire with a swipe of my hands. Rather than mixing, the two different sets of flames collide and push against each other. She can't exhale forever, the unavoidable flaw in this trick she's learned. As her fire slowly weakens I make mine stronger to force it closer to my three opponents. I try to not use too much force to avoid severely injuring them if she caves in.

Two swirls of water crash into the fire on either side, putting both of ours out. Steam was released into the air and covered our surroundings. The humidity dampens the air and makes the atmosphere feel sticky. This is not the most ideal setting for my fire to be conjured up. Instead, I bring the heat into my eyes the way I did when I had a blindfold on to enhance my sight, and just in time, too. I can see their shadows about to pounce. 

All three attack at once. Despite the steam acting as a setback to my sight, I can still listen in on the faint whooshing sounds in the air. If there are any sudden movements in the steam clouds, I will be able to see. 

I hold out my wrists to block Mina's staff from hitting my face. I glance at the determined expression on her face as she tries to free her weapon from the grip I now have on my end, but I keep her there. We stare at each other for a while. The second her shoulders relax from the most likely thought that I was not going to do anything other than hold a stalemate with her, I crack a grin to prove her wrong. Both hands hold my end of her staff so I can lift her into the air with ease and use her as a shield from Jean's attempt to pounce from the steam. I let go to let both of them fall hard onto the floor. 

Sasha is the only one left, as expected, and as usual I manage to block her offensive moves. As much as I want to continue this fight with them, I decide to end it when she tries to bring a kick to the side of my head. Grabbing her leg, I pull her closer and swoop down to sweep off her other leg. She falls down on her bottom.

There is nothing else they can do now that I have made them all fall. I have won my match. 

Clapping erupts once the steam clears out. Erwin wears a proud smile whilst clapping and Levi has the slightest expression of being impressed. All four of us stand straight and bow first to them and then to each other.

"You have all done well," Erwin begins, "though if I remember correctly, the original purpose was for Armin to do this _with a blindfold on_." I can only smile and chuckle nervously, rubbing the back of my head.

"It wasn't bad, nonetheless," Levi adds. "More like, far from ever being bad. There are some flaws I see in your attackers' strategies and teamwork, though. We'll scheduling to work on that. As for Carolina..." Mina stands up as straight as possible, her staff at her side. "Your first match with those in the older half of the group was better than I could have expected. Your technique seems to be fine for now and we expect you to work well with Farlan in the future considering you two are the eldest of your own half."

"O-Of course, sir!" she says. 

Erwin begins to evaluate our work individually besides Mina since Levi took care of that already. "Sasha, you may be the strongest of the _Luft_ among both halves, but I suggest you try to find a way to make your fighting pattern less predictable." 

"Understood, sir."

"Jean, you must learn to control your emotions while in battle. You can't let yourself get reckless just because you are feeling the pressure of possibly losing to an opponent."

"Yes, sir."

"Armin, your hand-to-hand combat skills are close to being top-notch, but sometimes your reaction time isn't the best when one of your senses does not match in wellness. Do you understand what I am asking for you to do?"

"I understand, sir." I need to learn how to better adapt to being unable to use one or more of my senses during battle. That way, I won't be held back as much.

Levi speaks after Erwin is finished. "Alright, whenever your next training sessions are scheduled, you will be practicing separately on your technical abilities. Be prepared to demonstrate your current progress next time. Dismissed!" 

We salute both of them. "Sir, yes sir!"

"And quit doing that! It's only less annoying when Isabel and Farlan do it!"

 

  

Everyone possesses technical magic, a form of magic derived from our elemental abilities. Historia can produce screams strong enough to even break the sound barrier. Jean can conjure weapons from many types of metal. Sasha's enhanced speed allows her to see some events before they happen, but not all events. Ymir is a _Terra_ like Jean, and can communicate, control, or harness the power of any animal. Annie is the most skilled in technical magic out of us teenagers, able to create ice crystals of all variations out of thin air; and, the warmer the atmosphere is, the colder her ice becomes. 

As for me, I try not to use my technical powers all that much. I can bring light to darkness with my fire, which is understandable, but I can also bring darkness to light. The light doesn't even have to be natural nor a flame. I can shut down electrical lights like in bulbs or computers. To make myself seem weirder, I can even manipulate emotions, which is what I am truly afraid of. If I concentrate hard enough I can bend the feelings of others however I like whenever I like. My fire is at its greatest strength when feeding on the emotions of others expelling from their auras.

In other words, I am a fiery empath. And I hate it. 

I do my utmost best to not draw too much negative attention to myself. When I first discovered this ability, I was still at the facility, already used to how experiments and punishments worked, but not used to the pain and I don't think I can ever get used to what they did to me back there. They stuck a piece of dry ice down my throat, the size big enough to not fall down and small enough so I could still breathe. Over time I grew enhanced healing abilities like everyone else, but if I had kept that ice stuck in there, the new skin would have had healed itself over the piece, and that feeling would have been beyond painful. 

But my throat never healed over it, thankfully, because they had to take it out when they realized what I've awakened in myself. Outside of the room one of the women had collapsed and was holding her throat in pain, as I overheard. She was crying and shouting "It burns! It burns!" before the piece was pulled out and she fainted. That was the first time my punishment was interrupted like that. More times came after whenever I was supposed to be punished for slipping up during training or not following a rule, but each of those times came with the same results. It was becoming too dangerous to punish me.

_How old was I again?_ I ask myself. _Still eleven, I think._ I sigh at the memories before continuing to pack my freshly air-dried work uniform - courtesy of Petra and Aururo doing the laundry today - into a drawstring bag. All of this reminiscing will get me nowhere if I end up late for work because of it.

Isabel sits on my bed reading one of the simpler-to-read books from my shelves. She tends to keep me company as much as she does with Levi, but at the moment he was busy helping Petra cook lunch even though he can't exactly cook for shit. Nonetheless, I enjoy her presence. She is an _Ignis_ like me, still getting used to using her powers and also exceptionally great at hand-to-hand combat; the adults of our group are convinced that _Ignis_ people possess the latter trait.

"Where do you work again?" she asks me after closing the book and following out of my bedroom. She closes my door for me. 

"Forgetful as ever, huh?" I lightly tease her. "This is the fifth time you've asked."

Her cheeks become nearly as red as her hair. "S-Spit it out already!"

"Alright, alright. I work at that one ice cream parlor at the plaza." 

I got the job a few months before high school graduation thanks to Annie, who worked there for a couple months before she mentioned the job opening; she may not have the brightest personality and the smile I see her pull when facing customers looks too forced, but she is good at what she does. She was the one who walked me through how to make milkshakes, how to use spatulas to mix toppings into ice cream, and helped me memorize our usual flavors and the entire menu. Thanks to her, we've had friendly competitions for employee of the month. 

The nine-year-old beside me widens her eyes. "Get me a free sundae, will you?!"

"Fine, if you can do me a small favor and stop covering pages of my books in ash whenever a character dies." 

"Deal!"

Annie is leaning against one of the smaller cars, an outdated yet extremely well-kept silver Sentra, when the two of us exit the house through the front. She's dressed in her usual attire of a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans and sneakers; today, her sweatshirt is a light blue that brings out her eyes, and how she can wear sweatshirts in this heat is beyond me. I bid Isabel a goodbye with a promise of bringing home some dessert for her. Once she's gone, I lose my smile as I enter the passenger seat in the front.

Lying to her, to everyone except Annie, who figured me out some time ago - it made my stomach twist.

"She didn't suspect you of anything?" Annie says. I nod.

"She's smart, but she's still nine. Still oblivious."

"I don't think anyone deserves to be oblivious. It only sets them up for heartbreak later on."

"Agreed, but we're still hypocrites. That fact is unavoidable."

The right temple of my head finds the cold glass of the window beside me. I look out the window while Annie starts the car. Pretty soon we're rolling out of the driveway and turning on the road. I stare at the fields of clovers and dandelions surrounding our house, a gift of the summertime coming to an end. They'll be gone by the time winter comes. It'll be around the same time I'll die.

_Right, "die". I tell myself that every year._ Every year I say that I'm most likely going to die around the wintertime because the cold will push my powers to its weakest point, and every year it doesn't happen. It's gotten to the point where I anticipate the winter simply because death sounds peaceful. Come on icy winds and heaps of snow, make me freeze to death this year.

Who needs a burden like me, an Elemental, anyways? Elementals are the reason why everything is becoming off balanced. The government are constantly trying to capture us without attracting the public's attention, and though that has failed for quite some time now, we will eventually be forced to return to the facility most of us were created in. 

The ride doesn't take long, at least for me. By the time I snap out of my thoughts of what I truly think about us Elementals, more than what I'm letting on, Annie is pulling into a space in a parking garage a block away from the ice cream parlor we work at. She presses three fingers against my shoulders to signal for me to get out once the car is turned off. We grab our work bags from the backseat and leave the car closed and locked up.

"You can always quit, you know," Annie tells me while we guide ourselves out of the garage and down the street. "This job is going to get in the way once you go to college."

"Both my classes and this job are only part-time," I reply. "I'll work some kind of schedule with the boss to even the times out. There won't be a need for me to leave yet, and I still need to save up money for afterwards." 

"Everything little counts, right?" 

"Right."

We stand together at the front doors of the parlor, looking into the colors inside through the glass. Several shades of blue ranging from light to dark are coupled with white or cream colors. There are already a few customers inside, but our shift begins shortly and it's already close to noon.

"'Another day, another dollar'." 

_Another day, another bunch of lies I'm setting up for myself._  

I pull up the fullest smile I have to greet our coworkers as I open the door for myself and Annie, but the two of us know that I am only lying to everyone.


	3. Stop and Stare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren is like many boys I've known from high school. As average as his high school life may have sounded, however, I couldn't find anything about it cliche or stereotypical.
> 
> Perhaps it's because he told me one of his green eyes wasn't real. His right eye was green, but he had placed a colored contact over his left eye so no one would find him weird. When I asked to see his left eye, he promised he would if we were to ever be alone together, just the two of us.
> 
> "Is this your way of saying you want to keep seeing me like this?"
> 
> I receive a half smile in response. "Yeah, for however long you think you can stand me."
> 
> "I think I can tolerate you just fine." I take a curly fry when he offers the basket to me, which I chew slowly before swallowing. "You think you can tell me why you have heterochromia iridium? Do your parents have special genes?"
> 
> He pauses to think about it. "Well, it's kind of complicated..." I tilt my head in curiosity as I stare at him patiently for his answer. After a bit of waiting, he finally tells me in a hushed whisper, and it was an answer I was not expecting at all.
> 
> "Would you be freaked out if I told you I was part of Project Element?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The way I wrote out Armin and Eren meeting didn't turn out as I originally planned, but I found myself liking what I ended up writing instead because it' scouted and it seems like a natural way as to how they'd meet in the modern world.
> 
> Please forgive me for all of the random One Republic mentions; I was in a One Republic mood when I first planned out and wrote this.

Annie slaps my hand away before I could snatch one of the gummy bears meant to be a topping for a sundae a kid ordered. She knows how I am around any gummy sweets, and working in a place where I'm constantly surrounded by them doesn't help my habits. Yet she knows why I'm always excited when around anything sweet in general.

The food back at the facility wasn't exactly good quality. Before I was subjected to the experiments, before my parents and I were taken out of society for them, I used to have quite the appetite. No one today would have ever believed I used to be a bit of a chubby child. Mom and Dad used to carry peppermints around to tie me over when I was on the verge to snacking on something before a meal. When we arrived at the facility, my parents told me that I had to control myself because we would be sharing food with other people from then on. They even managed to sneak me a peppermint every month or so from the stash they hid in Mom's purse as a way of rewarding me.

Naturally, living there made me grow thinner and my appetite became normal, perhaps even smaller than the average child's at the time. This was the effect of learning to hold myself back and from not enjoying the taste of the food provided. Most of the time it was bland and sort of bitter and the drinks were barely any better. Of course I had to get used to that as well. Even as a child I knew not to overstep my boundaries.

Breaking out of the facility allowed me to gain some weight back. I never became chubby again, though, because of the appetite I developed. Combining everyone in our group's bank accounts into one massive account for all of us to use gave us more than enough to buy and renovate the house we have now as well as purchase a few snacks considered to be luxuries in the facility. With the money I had, I bought a small jar of peppermints, and we all shared with each other.

Giving Annie a pleading stare, I got her to give up and let me take one. I take three instead and pop them into my mouth before she could object.

"Save some for the kid who ordered this, will you?" she mumbles.

"You can always add more," I say. 

She rolls her eyes but says nothing else. I am soon left alone while she leaves to hand the sundae over to the child waiting with his mother at the cash register.

We work at a place called the Titan Creamery, where the motto is that "We serve to conquer Titan-sized appetites!" The main attraction here is the ice cream which is why we call it an ice cream parlor, but this place is really a diner, explaining the motto. Annie and I tend to scooping ice cream, making sundaes, and adding toppings to orders for both here and to-go. We wear matching dark blue t-shirts with the parlor's logo over the left side of the chest and cream-colored jeans. The shoes don't matter as long as we can move easily in them, so we wear our sneakers.

Our shifts being in the afternoon and with it still being the summertime, the place slowly packs with customers into the booths and tables. Children like to come to the counter and look at the ice cream options behind the two glass domes. If they ask, we offer small samples of a flavor they want. The two of us pull off smiles even though we don't like to smile and Annie looks unnatural with the wide "friendly" one she uses. If anything she reminds me of a mad girl from a horror movie. It makes me wonder if the children notice it as well.

"Take care of the front while I head on my break?" she asks me in the later afternoon. " _Mikasa_ should be here in the next five minutes. You can finally meet her."

With all the work we had due to the lunch rush, two hours flew by quickly. Given our part-time shifts, we only worked here from noon to five on most days, to seven if we work on weekends. 

As for the mention of this "Mikasa" girl, no one would ever guess Annie to be interested in people of the same gender, mostly because she doesn't seem like the kind to be interested in anyone at all. She doesn't care about who she ends up liking and it's not like she's the one to have crushes anyways. No one in our group has met Mikasa because she attends college with a brother no one has met either so hers and Annie's schedules regularly don't match up. When they do get to meet up, Annie leaves the house and drives to the city.

It has been three months since she first mentioned her and yet somehow she manages to keep her out of our sight.

I make my way towards the cash register and look about from my new post. The place was filled with people laughing and smiling, having casual conversations, enjoying their meals or desserts. One Republic played in the speakers from the ceiling.

_**Take that money, watch it burn** _

_**Sink in the river, the lessons are learned**_

I've lost count of how many times I've listened to that one line, but now it's in my head. The line plays over and over, even after the end of the song and another one by the same band begins to play. Breaking it down, I can see how relatable it really is. In my opinion, I see the relation to death. No matter how much money you make or how successful you are, it won't matter in the end because we all wind up at relatively the same place. It only matters how you lead your life and what you've experienced up until that end.

No one comes through the doors for another few minutes until they open for two people - a guy and a girl, probably my age or maybe slightly older. The girl has black shoulder-length hair and wears the commonly found ensemble of denim shorts and a light tang top. Around her neck is a red scarf in a loose wrap, which I find strange given the increasing heat outside and yet she shows no signs of sweating. She enters the parlor first before letting in her companion.

He's the same height as her. He has short brown hair and his eyes' color is easier to identify - a bright green, with just the slightest hint of blue somewhere in the bottom center. Like the girl, his outfit is better suited for the weather - cargo shorts and a plain green t-shirt that brings out his eyes. The two let the door close on its own before they make their way towards me.

"Welcome to the Titan Creamery," I say with a practiced smile. "Is this your first time here?"

"It's his," the girl replies, pointing at the boy beside her. "I'm going to order first so he can take his time..." She looks around behind me, obviously in search of something. "Actually, I'm going to make my order to-go. There's someone here I'm supposed to meet."

My eyes widen slightly. "Are you Mikasa?"

She hums softly. "Yes, that's me." Her lips, having been in a straight line since she entered, curl up into the smallest of smiles. "Are you a friend of Annie?"

"I am, yes."

She orders a small cup of the pistachio ice cream with some crushed almonds for a topping. She seems like a nice girl so far, or at least she's sincere. I do have to admit she is pretty but too pretty to be my type even though it's not like I really have one. I also have to admit that she appears to be the kind of girl Annie would like. They're both quiet girls, so I can see how it works. Not to mention that Annie met her while doing some late night exercises at a gym two months before high school graduation and they hit it off by sparring each other, meaning she had to be as tough as her.

While I make my way over to the domes, I can feel the boy's eyes on me, but I do not look up. Rather I pay attention to my job and scoop some pistachio ice cream into a paper cup. His eyes follow my movements from the ice cream to when I'm sprinkling crushed almonds on top and to when I'm handing the order over to Mikasa with a light pink spoon stuck in there for her use. I ignore the fact he is staring right at me as I hand her the change for paying a $4.19 cup (tax included in total) with a five dollar bill.

After she leaves the line to find an empty seat so she can wait for Annie, I find myself finally eye to eye with this guy. I figured he had already looked at the choices we have since he had been staring me while scooping ice cream, so I wait for him patiently to place an order.

Nothing.

He says nothing, not even when I tilt my head towards the domes. All he does is flick his eyes to them and back to me and then blinks several times.

"..." 

"..."

"... So..."

"..."

"... Aren't you going to order something?"

His cheeks suddenly glow red and I, _finally_ , get to hear his voice. "W-Well! I was actually waiting for you to ask, is all."

I mentally smack myself. He had been staring at me all this time just because I didn't say something like "May I take your order?" or "What'd you like?". I have myself to blame for that, though, since I had been waiting on him to make the first move.

Maintaining a calm expression, I gesture to the dessert board hung above my head on the wall behind me. "These are the options regarding any of our ice cream-related desserts, and be aware that some flavors are not served daily. We also have our diner menu if you want to order anything else for here or to-go."

He stares up at the board for a while. "Um... An ice cream soda, I guess?"

I nod. "For here or in a to-go cup?"

"Here but in a to-go cup okay?"

"Of course. Please choose your ice cream flavor and then a soda."

He walks to the domes and examines each flavor. I made sure the tiny sample spoons were ready in case he wanted to try something. His eyebrows knit together in his haste to choose something without taking too long.

"Strawberry banana with Sprite, please."

Usually people go for something like root beer and vanilla or even cola with vanilla - anything with vanilla ice cream so it could be turned into a float. This had to be the first time I've listened to someone use such a combination as his, especially with a strange decision as strawberry banana ice cream. Nonetheless, I place two large scoops into an extra large styrofoam cup and then add the Sprite until the foam forms and reaches the rim. I keep wiping along the edge to make sure it did not overflow. When I figured the ice cream still mixing with the soda would continue this mess I was trying to prevent, I simply place the cup into a bowl along with a straw and a spoon.

"Be careful when you drink this," I warn the brunette as I hand his order to him. "If you need more Sprite, don't hesitate to ask."

"Y-Yeah, okay. Thanks. This'll be all."

He pays me seven dollars for his $6.29 ice cream soda (tax included in total). I hand him his change and tell him my practiced "Have a nice day!", but he doesn't leave. Rather, he takes to staring at me once more. This time I don't judge him, considering he at least stepped to the side so the little girl behind him - god knows how long she had to wait because of him - could place her order with me.

Annie comes out from the staff lounge in the kitchen after I pour sprinkles onto a small waffle cone of chocolate ice cream. She's back in her clothes from earlier this afternoon, but she still runs the register just enough to take the little girl's money and hand her the change right when I finished placing a cherry on top upon her request. Even when she leaves, the brunette is still staring. 

"So, I see you've met Eren," she tells me while making her own little sundae that would be paid out of her paycheck. She grabs a $6.99 large cup and scoops the Neapolitan ice cream three times. So much for it being "little". 

"So his name is Eren?"

She nods, adding sliced bananas and glazed strawberries to her mix. "Eren and Mikasa live at the dorms at Sina State University. He's her brother." Over the fruits comes the crushed walnuts and a dollop of whipped cream.

"I don't see the resemblance."

" _Adopted_ _siblings_ , genius." To top off her dessert, she sprinkles the mini gummy bears. 

"Hungry today, are we?" 

"Oh, this isn't for me." She plucks a plastic top over it so none of it spilled out. She crouches down to stow it in the freezer underneath the toppings section. "Isabel wants a sundae, remember? This one'll be on me."

Her small acts of kindness are rare, so it was natural for me to widen my eyes. All she does is pull the slightest of a smirk on her lips and then leaves my side. On the other side of the counter, Mikasa is already finished with the pistachio ice cream I gave her and had thrown the cup and spoon away into the trash bin. They both mumble something to Eren, who removed his eyes on me to listen to them, before waving to both of us and leaving for Annie's lunch break. 

The two of us are left alone once again.

For once, it's him who speaks up first.

"Listen," he says, "sorry for acting awkward with you. It's just I don't really have a lot of friends outside our family, even with college. Mikasa and Annie thought I could try getting to know you. Annie said you don't have any friends outside your family, too." 

The next time Annie and I spar together, I'm _so_ getting back at her for being the cause of this. 

"Don't worry about it," I reply.

He narrows his eyes at me. "You're lying. You're annoyed that Annie set us up like this."

"And how could you possibly know that?" 

He smirks, the first I see his lips twitch upwards like that. "Keen intuition, of course. So, am I right or am I right?"

I can only sigh. "I suppose you're right..." I gaze back at him. "My break doesn't start until another twenty minutes, but you're supposed to be hanging out with me, I guess. What're you going to do until then?" 

"Order a side of French fries from the lunch menu, maybe, or a side of onion rings. I don't know, what would you recommend?"

I hum in thought. "Hmm... The fries, but get them curly; the seasoning is better."

This time, he pulls a smile. I can see that his teeth are a fair white, and his canines look sharp. When I stare at his entire face, it seems his smile compliments his eyes.

Quite charming, honestly.

 

 

One Republic is still playing in the background when I hang up my apron for my lunch break; I can only blame Hitch, one of the waitresses, and her love for bands for this. "All the Right Moves" begins with its rather relaxing instrumental. I don't change out of my uniform since I'm not planning on leaving the parlor any time soon. Eren didn't seem to mind when I took my seat beside him, sitting on the stools by the front windows. His curly fries remained mostly untouched and he still had his ice cream soda.

He's taking courses to become a psychologist, I learn during our small chats of different topics. He and Mikasa are both nineteen and are going to be starting their second years of college with the new semester a month from now. Mikasa is striving to be a chef, but since culinary school is expensive and she also doesn't want to leave Hermina to attend the one in Yalkell - a five hour drive from here - she chose to stick to any of the culinary art and theater courses at S.S.U. I told him of my choices and, as I expected, he was surprised by how the two contradicted each other in some ways. 

Eren is like many boys I've known from high school. He likes to play sports and listen to music. His grades were not the best in high school, but he studied just enough in time to receive a high grade in his finals every semester. He's attracted the attention of a variety of people, yet he only had one girlfriend before they had a mutual, healthy breakup and she went off to find a more enjoyable romance with someone else. As average as his high school life may have sounded, however, I couldn't find anything about it cliche or stereotypical.

Perhaps it's because he told me one of his green eyes wasn't real. His right eye was green, but he had placed a colored contact over his left eye so no one would find him weird. It's his own insecurities that I seem to understand him best about because it shows me that he's not like any other guy. When I asked to see his left eye, he promised he would if we were to ever be alone together, just the two of us.

"Is this your way of saying you want to keep seeing me like this?"

I receive a half smile in response. "Yeah, for however long you think you can stand me."

"I think I can tolerate you just fine." I take a curly fry when he offers the basket to me, which I chew slowly before swallowing. "You think you can tell me why you have heterochromia iridium? Do your parents have special genes?"

He pauses to think about it. "Well, it's kind of complicated..." I tilt my head in curiosity as I stare at him patiently for his answer. After a bit of waiting, he finally tells me in a hushed whisper, and it was an answer I was not expecting at all. 

"Would you be freaked out if I told you I was part of _Project Element_?"

 

 

When I first met Jean, I was eight and he was nine. I learned that he used to live in a city named Trost with his mother while his father had passed after he was taken. He did not come here with them, which was rare because children usually showed up with their parents. This was because apparently there were too many adults and not enough children who would last longer in the facility. He was snatched away from his family and his father was shot for resisting one of the officers who pushed him into the car. Meanwhile, his mother could only weep as she watched the two people she loved be taken away from her.

He only told me this because I was one of the only boys in the children's group at the time. We became close and later made a small pact to stick together and we would not go down fighting by ourselves. My parents took a liking to him upon meeting him and vice versa. He saw them as a secondary family, but he was determined to return to his mother one day even if it killed him.

Back then, Jean used to have red hair. At age ten, he was subjected to the experiments for the first time. The chemicals in the serums that breaks down DNA to make room for the magic we would soon possess found that room in the DNA that made up the color of his hair. He one day came out of one of those labs with the ashy brunette hair he has today.

Before I was ten, I used to have freckles across the bridge of my nose and on my limbs. Then, after losing those freckles, my eyes turned from their originally turquoise color like my father's eyes and into the cerulean my mother had. Had my parents not been shot to death, Dad would have told me how much more I looked like Mom.

Jean and I were not the only ones who lost and gained, of course. Everyone loses something or gains something from the serums forcing their way into our genes. Sasha gained a faster metabolism. Historia's sense of hearing became extremely sensitive but also acute. Annie lost the ability to sweat. Ymir gained freckles and even lost her ability to speak for half a year before the scientists were able to speed up the healing process on her. 

Over time, we got used to these new changes as we grew accustomed to our powers. It took us a while, but after facing the pains of the serums and the punishments we received over the course of our training we pushed these changes aside to make ready for the changes our magic brought us.

 

 

"... _Project Element_...?"

He nods. "Yeah."

"So you're-"

"Like you? I guess so."

"Quite a coincidence, huh?" 

"I know, right? Just our luck."

Eren makes sure no one else seemed to be paying attention to us before he continues. He takes sips of his ice cream soda in between every other sentence. I lean further against the counter with my face directed towards him so I could focus on him.

"My group was located on the opposite side of the facility, which may be why we've never met before until now." _Sip._ "I was about nine or ten when I was brought to the place and met Mikasa." _Sip._ "She's a _Wasser_ type, by the way."

"And you?" I ask quietly.

_Sip._ "I'm a _Terra_ type; I've got more strength than speed, but I suppose I'm still pretty fast, and I'm at my best around dirt and metals and stuff. My technical speciality revolves around the more mental side to it all, though." _Sip._ "What about you?"

At first I hesitate. We've only just met and he already claims to be an Elemental like me. I feel I should be suspicious of him. The government has to have been plotting to capture us one by one for these past five years. For all I know Eren could be some agent who somehow managed to identify me and Annie with the help of his partner Mikasa.

... But if I really think about it, that can't be it at all. He's only two years older than me, so he and Mikasa had to have been fourteen when I escaped. Even if they were mature, the government would still never place trust in any two teenagers. I understand how adolescence works to some degree. We tend to have our emotions get the better of ourselves. It's why most of our technical and industrial magic derives from the energy and adrenaline our emotions give.

Figuring this out helped me believe I can trust him. "I'm an _Ignis_. In the group I live with now, I'm one out of the only four with that type, and we've confirmed through training that _Ignis_ types tend to have fast reflexes, making our bodies suitable for hand-to-hand combat."

"Yeah, I can see how that could be. There's about three in my group and only one of them's an adult. She acts like a mom and kicks our asses if we don't help around the house, but most of the time she's _Luft_ -like."

"We have one of those, too."

I immediately think of Petra. Although she seems gentle like a _Terra_ or a _Wasser_ , no one would ever expect her to actually have the rage of a true _Ignis_. Kind of like me, in a way, because I've been told plenty of times that I seem more like a _Luft_ because I don't show my anger often. Farlan acts calm like a _Wasser_ but has the strength of an _Ignis_. Isabel is the only one whose personality fits her powers. All in all, _Ignis_ people are actually pretty rare to find because we tend to mask our true selves well. You never know who may really be a certain type of Elemental.

We get off the topic of _Project Element_  in general and move towards how each of our groups have settled down. Eren's group lives in the city in a penthouse but as I learned from Annie, he and Mikasa live in the dorms at Sina State University. The head of their group turns out to be Hange Zoe, who is famous for both their science fiction novels as well as their tendency to bark at people who use their incorrect pronouns. His group is smaller than mine, made up of six teenagers including himself, two children, and five adults including Hange - thirteen in all.

Listening to Eren talk feels like something else other than chatting. Maybe it's because he and I are both Elementals so we can relate to each other better. That only seems to be half of it, however. I feel that fire infused into me faintly reacting to only his words and his face. There's a passionate side to him that he's not completely showing me as he goes on about times where he's beaten even the strongest Terra in his group and he's surprised himself.

I guess this is what it feels like to have someone new in my life. Hopefully we can continue getting along like this. 

"Hey Armin?"

"Yes?"

"You're not being completely honest with me."

I fold my arms on the counter and rest my head on them, burying half my face. My left eye gazes up at him, at his suddenly serious expression that's ruined the light mood we've had seconds before. I can even point out the hints of concern.

"How am I not being completely honest?" I ask.

"I'm no empath, but I can tell just by your face that even though you're enjoying our time together without really showing it, you want to say something."

_... He's smarter than I thought._

I sigh. "Do you have any questions for me, then? I'll answer them truthfully."

"You didn't talk much about you and your group after the escape... What's your most honest opinion about us, us Elementals?"

Throughout the entire time we've spent much lunch break talking, not once have I smiled and I suppose there's no holding back now. He already knows a lot about me and vice versa. We're Elementals, after all. We're burdens. We throw this world off balance. Because we are what we are - not _who_ we are - I can trust him with an opinion only Annie knows of.

"My opinion, you ask of?" I say. He blinks in surprise at the smile I give him, but I don't think of it as a smile. Really, it's more of a half smirk. "Time to come clean then." I stare at him, keeping my "smile" up, making sure I have his attention.

" _I honestly want to kill us all. If only we were all **dead**._ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ending didn't turn out as smoothly as I hoped, but oh well, I tried.
> 
> Author's Favorite Part(s):
> 
> "Back then, Jean used to have red hair." (The image in my head fascinated me.)
> 
> I also greatly enjoyed writing out Armin dealing with Eren's awkward staring.
> 
> Honorable Mention:
> 
> "No one today would have ever believed I used to be a bit of a chubby child." (I mean, come on, Armin being a chubby child sounds adorable.)


	4. Catching Hummingbirds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Oi, Armin, I have a proposition for you."
> 
> I look up at him. "How will this affect me?"
> 
> "This is a bet. Loser treats the winner to whatever he wants at whatever place he chooses."
> 
> His eyes - both the real green one and the fake one - have a spark caught in them. I see them light up whenever he lays them on me. My magic feeds on passion like his, and he keeps on feeding it and making it stronger.
> 
> "You have my interest."
> 
> "You and me, one-on-one combat match."
> 
> "Right here?"
> 
> "Right now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is going to have a bit more insight on how technical magic works in this universe, which will also be a response to a comment in the previous chapter about Eren's OOC intuition in the form of his technical ability.
> 
> Coming up in the next chapter will be more of a filler providing more memories about Armin's past!
> 
> Special Author's Note: Armin's technical ability was actually inspired by a quote/skill used in another anime/manga. Cookies go to whoever can figure out what it is. (Hint: The top two genres it's placed under are horror and mystery.)

We watch in awe as Isabel takes on her opponent at nearly full throttle. She darts to the left, then to the right, back and forth in a zigzag motion which confuses the other. All that's left behind from places where she previously stood were small piles of ashes and floating embers. Her opponent clutches his wakizashi tightly in an underhanded grip while his eyes moved around in an attempt to predict her next move.

By the surprised look on his face he had next, I'm sure he did not expect her to appear nearby the ceiling. He twirls his sword and slashes over his head to block the shuriken thrown before she disappears once more. I can tell he is reaching his limit of patience when he grits his teeth.

My suspicions are proven upon seeing his middle and index fingers touch the base of the blade where it meets the handle. He presses them down against it before moving them up. A trail of light is left behind until the entire blade is glowing. He continues to slide his fingers out even when they are not on the sword anymore, but when the light fades away we see a katana replacing his wakizashi.

Jean chuckles softly beside me, for he and the boy fighting out there had been training for this specific match. Both being _Terra_ , it is obvious that their technical abilities around metal would be similar, making them ideal partners. For this match we placed bets on who would come out as the victor. As expected, he settled for the boy because of his ability to conjure weapons. Out of thirty-one in all, however, seventeen of us betted against him.

After having numerous merged trainings with Eren's group for the past month since he and I met, we all know what Isabel is like when she puts her head in a game. Her technical abilities are centered around the idea of a flame being able to flicker in different patterns - in other words, teleportation. It goes well with her energetic personality as it also does for this match in a trial of speed.

Her opponent Sayram, a boy her age with long black hair brushed above his eyes, was the stronger of the two children in Eren's group and she is the strongest of the children in mine. This has been what spurred on the idea of them competing against each other.

Isabel appears once more, this time several feet directly in front of Sayram. She shoots another shuriken his way, to which he holds his sword up to deflect it. But before it touches the blade, the star-shaped disc disappears, leaving behind a pile of ashes. Her arms swipe multiple times to release several others that vanish as well.

"W-What the hell?!" Jean exclaims. Some of the girls mutter "Oohs" and "Ahhs" while some of the guys either gasp or say something only the lines of what Jean said. Eren and I keep silent and so do Levi and Erwin. Hange, Eren's group leader, giggles softly as they take some notes on papers strapped to a clipboard.

I glance up at Jean until I catch his eye and he stares back at me. I hold out my hand. "Pay up," I tell him.

"The match ain't over yet," he rebuts. "All the ninja stars are only disappearing."

"Because of Isabel."

"Huh?"

I point back to the children. "Watch and weep for your wallet."

Suddenly, one of the shuriken appears behind Sayram. It maintains the same speed from when it was first thrown until it lodges itself into his shoulder. The blade doesn't seem to be deep enough to inflict any major damage, but it is enough to immobilize his right arm.

All according to plan, if I do say so myself.

The rest of the stars fly out of tiny portals made of ashes and embers. Sayram tried twirling his katana in an attempt to block them, but a few still managed to slash at his limbs and even one produced a cut on his left cheek. He clenches his jaw tighter in frustration and at the stings of pain he must be feeling. Once all of the stars were gone, Isabel kicks off, popping up in front of him. She takes him further by surprise with a sweep under his legs to knock him to the ground. A hand soon on his throat to keep him down, seventeen of us knew we were splitting profits from the bet.

"What was that?!" Jean shouts. He turns to me. "When did she learn to do that?!"

"Throughout this week during our training for this match," I reply. I raise my voice to grab everyone's attention. "I introduce you all to _Hummingbird Projectile_ , Isabel's newest move to add on to her technical magic. With this she is capable of teleporting not only herself, but also any object she throws or carries."

"How can that be? All you two've been doing was play darts."

I stare up at him, folding my arms. "Exactly. By playing darts, we increased her aiming and throwing accuracy. It also allowed her to focus on where and when she wants an object to disappear or reappear." I hold out my hand. "Now, I believe you and thirteen other people owe the winners of this bet."

The two children stand up and bow to each other while the rest of us applaud them for their effort. Nifa runs towards the boy with a first aid kit in hand. Isabel runs into my open arms so I can pick her up and place her on my shoulders. She's heavy, but she deserves it for winning, so I endure the feeling of my shoulders possibly dislocating so she can have her moment in the limelight.

"Never let us down, kid!" Sasha cheers for her, holding a ten dollar bill in her fist that she got from Auroro, who lost to her in the bet. She leans against one of Eren's group mates, Connie Springer, known by Jean and Ymir as Baldie because of his shaved head.

He whoops along with her after snatching a five dollar bill from Eld. "I knew I was doing the right thing by betting on you. You have more energy in your fingers than Sayram has in his whole body!"

"Fuck off, Connie!"

Some of us go quiet and state back at Sayram, the source of the cursing. The rest of us - namely those of Eren's group - stare at him as if he committed a horrible taboo; I mean, I understand considering he's only nine. I glance at Eren for an answer to this sudden cease in celebration. All he does is nudge his head in the direction of the child again, and soon I understand the situation perfectly.

Nifa's hair is on fire. She stands over him with her hair, a reddish brunette, burning bright and the ends floating. A deadly smile curls on her lips. Her light brown eyes glow softly. When Sayram turns around, you can practically see the blood drain from his face. In no wasted second is he picked up by the collar of his shirt and held over her head. For a woman as small as I am, she is quite terrifying.

"Should I wash your mouth out with soap?" she smirks. "And to wash out the soap, should I dowse your mouth with boiling water? We've talked about your punishment for foul language for your age."

"S-S-Sorry, ma'am!" he exclaims, eyes widened in fear. "I-I'll watch m-my mouth!"

"You better, but the next time I get word you've cursed, I'm not holding back!"

"U-Understood, ma'am!"

Just like that, she loses her angered expression in favor a bright smile. That was even creepier. "Good!" She sets him on the floor and continues to dress his wounds.

Isabel taps the top of my head. "She's scary," she whispers.

"You should see Hange," Eren leans over and whispers back. He pauses and processes what he said. "No, wait- No, you don't." When I set Isabel down so she could run off to collect the money she won, he throws an arm around my shoulders. "So, how much did you win? Marco gave me seven dollars. I only went easy on him since he's a nice guy."

"Jean and I were the main betters. He's treating me to whatever I want for lunch at the cafeteria at S.S.U."

He laughs softly. "Nice! See, the food's great there! A little pricey for university food, but still great."

Annie and I started our first semester of college a week ago. My classes haven't been too difficult yet, or at least my creative writing classes haven't. Biochemistry is already nipping at me with a research paper on hormones versus pheromones. With Sasha and Jean being a year older than us, we spend time with them during lunch on campus. Historia doesn't feel she's ready to take any classes yet, so she and Ymir, who's two years older, are taking a longer break. We see Eren and Mikasa often enough that sometimes we hang out in their dorm rooms, mainly to have a quiet place to do our homework in when we don't want to walk to the library.

Since our meeting a month ago, Eren and I have been getting along. He's taken a liking to my presence, heaven knows why due to my usual lack of expressing emotion. He calls me interesting because of my perspective of things; he likes having someone who clashes with him. I ended up not giving Annie payback for her and Mikasa setting us up like that, for I have to admit that I'm grateful for them bringing us to become friends.

Plus, I'd be lying if I said I didn't find him in any way attractive.

It's only a crush, a naive crush. People have naive crushes on each other all the time. Sasha once had one on me when we were younger, and I've mistaken admiration towards Annie with infatuation on numerous accounts during freshman year of high school. It was in sophomore year when I kissed Jean on accident and liked it that I understood that I really had no preference, but I didn't have any more crushes afterwards. That must mean Eren is definitely different. I can feel it in that passionate aura of his. If only he'd show it.

"Oi, Armin, I have a proposition for you."

I look up at him. "How will this affect me?"

"This is a bet. Loser treats the winner to whatever he wants at whatever place he chooses."

His eyes - both the real green one and the fake one - have a spark caught in them. They light up like that whenever we talk about his classes towards becoming a psychologist, or whenever he insists for me to read what I've written for creative writing. I see them light up whenever he lays them on me. My magic feeds on passion like his, and he keeps on feeding it and making it stronger.

"You have my interest."

"You and me, one-on-one combat match."

"Right here?"

"Right now."

 

 

I remove my jacket before I walk to one side. The breeze filling the room from the air conditioner immediately hits my exposed arms. Goosebumps align in rows on my skin, but I ignore the urge to shiver. I practice my breathing exercises, the standard deep inhales and exhales. This is just like sparring with the people in my group, only this time I don't know what my opponent is capable of.

My eyes follow Eren as he makes his way to the opposite side. He's removed his own sweatshirt in favor of tying it around his waist. He smiles a smile at me that makes me feel bad for not smiling back. We bow to our group leaders on the sidelines and then to each other.

"Ah, nothing says gambling than battling to the point of possibly critical damage!" Hange giggles. They have their camcorder up and recording us. "My money's on my boy. Twenty bucks says he'll pin Armin down in ten minutes."

"I suppose I'll accept that offer," Levi tells her, folding his arms and leaning against the wall. "Double your offer says my brat beats your beat in fifteen minutes."

"'Fifteen minutes'?" Erwin speaks up. "Do you not trust Armin?"

"Of course I do, but considering his _conditions_ I'm expecting him to take his time with his victory." I flinch slightly at the emphasized word, knowing what he means by that. He appears to have noticed that when he lays his eyes on me. "Ah, right, you can still hear us." Clearing his throat, he straightens his posture but remains in his position. "You two may start when ready."

Eren and I stare into each other's eyes from where we stand. We slowly advance towards the center. I keep my hands under my chin in a defensive stance in case he tries to pull a surprise attack, but we manage to make it to the center without such action. By reading his face I can tell he's nervous while his eyes display excitement. He nods in my direction to signal that he wants me to make the first move. I shake my head, knowing that this would place a disadvantage on me, and he grins as if he knew I would do this. With a sigh, he brings his hands up.

I barely have time to protect myself when he winds his right arm up and swings in the direction of my chest with the speed of a _Luft_. I analyze his form before he takes another swing, this time it being his left fist aimed at the side of my head. Again, I successfully block him in time. My right forearm takes the blow and I can feel the immense amount of pressure a _Terra_ is able to store into their body. On the day we met he told me he had strength over speed. I've witnessed him prove it when he spars with other people on the days our groups merge for training. This is different from watching, though. Understanding how powerful he is just with these simple swings actually frightens me to some degree.

His fighting pattern changes after a few more punches which I block. He sometimes brings a knee or a foot up to try and throw me off but I dodge each time. It's only within a few more close combat attempts that he finally steps back. That grin of his remains on his face, having been there from the beginning.

"You're pretty quick to avoid me," he says.

"That's only because you won't stop going easy on me," I reply. "Don't try it to deny it either. You may be fast but you're not trying."

He chuckles. "You're right, but you're still underestimating me. I'm only going easy to observe your reactions to my hits." He hums. "Oi, Armin, let's make this more interesting. Have at me for a change."

There's no need for me to be told twice. I snap my fingers and feel the heat from tiny flaming spheres floating over my hands. I continue to snap until I'm surrounded by a ring of flames, stepping back each time to put some more space between us. My right foot then kicks me off so I'm running back towards him at a faster speed. I twist my body with the motions of my hands to direct the flames at him from different directions. He dodges and ducks away from most of them, save for one ball that hits his left side just above where his hips should be. A blast of ashes is left behind on his shirt. Even while wincing, he keeps smiling at me.

Okay, I have no idea if this is the appropriate time or not to find that kind of cute. I chew on my bottom lip as I continue to fire more spheres at him, trying to get such thoughts out of my head for now.

When I stop conjuring fire, I notice his eyes are glowing softly. Suddenly my entire body goes numb the second our eyes meet. I can't move any part of my body from the neck down. This was what he meant by me underestimating him. His combat skills are close to impeccable, but he's told me of how his technical magic is how he takes his opponents by surprise. At this point I'm close to making my bottom lip bleed from all the biting.

Eren's overall ability is known as _Coordinate_. Having more control over the mental concepts of the _Terra_ , he can lock on anyone and anything and manipulate their movement. He's also capable of keeping them frozen in place the way he's done so with me. There's much more to this magic, though he prefers to keep the use of it to a minimum in favor of more physical fighting. He possesses a balance between physicality and mentality that which I envy.

  
_Are you impressed yet, Armin?_ His voice rings in my head, another addition to his power. _I always catch a look on your face whenever you watch me use this trick. You've been wanting to know how it feels for it to be used on yourself._ He walks closer to me while he keeps communicating with me in my head. _Come on, you're able to speak in your mind, I'll hear whatever you want to say._

_Won't it seem weird for us to have a mental conversation like this in front of everyone else?_ I ask as casually as possible while my heart is pounding.

_Don't worry, Hange's already explained to your group what I can do, so they'll get it._ Once he's in front of me, he shines a stupid toothy smile. It's that kind that makes me feel my own cheeks warm up and I have to deliberately force the heat away from my face. _This is kind of exciting, y'know. I've never seen you at anyone's mercy like this before._

I roll my eyes. _Being a dickhead, are we?_

_Nah, I think it's just me being one. Admit it, though, Armin: you're fine with it. Keen intuition, remember?_

Oh, how I _wish_ he was wrong. Instead of focusing on his voice, I try to search for a way out of this mess. He can pin me down any time to end this match and he knows it, but he wants to take his time. That's what I need to use to my advantage. For now I can only keep on stalling until I can find an opening to take him down with.

_... Yes, I suppose you're somewhat right_ , I tell him, which isn't exactly wrong. _Only somewhat because I'm okay with people I trust. I'm also not one who'll go down without a fight, so I usually end up winning my battles. Congratulations on bringing me down, Yeager._

Eren's smile widens. _I'm glad to hear that you trust me, Armin._

There it is again, that passion radiating off of him. It sends waves into my stomach before it begins to feel fuzzy and makes me crave more. My fire which feeds on emotions is reacting heavily to it and is demanding to be fed for satisfaction. The more I taste his passion on my tongue - a vibrant mix of cinnamon and caramel - the more energy I feel rushing through me. He doesn't understand yet that this is a good sign for me.

_Like I said, though, I'm not going down without a fight._

Black smoke forms in a small cloud between us. It first shapes into a cord that wraps around his left wrist and my right wrist on either end. Taking advantage of his shock, I quickly unlock my own technical magic. He looks down at the cord holding us together.

_This is a technical move of mine, Eren. I call it **Chessboard Rotation**. The name comes from the idea of learning and predicting another's motives and actions by putting myself in their position, which is commonly used in _ _chess. So, now it's time we have our own rotation once more._

His breath hitches for a moment when he realizes what I meant. The idea behind _Chessboard Rotation_ can be taken quite literally, especially at this point. Feeling comes back into the rest of my body as I regain control over myself and I watch Eren lose control over himself and _Coordinate_. His body freezes up from the neck down. The tables have turned and so have our positions. Unlike what he's done, I don't hesitate to grab his neck and use my legs to sweep him off his feet. Once he lands on his bottom I hold him down the way Isabel did with Sayram.

"I win," I say simply.

Releasing _Chessboard Rotation_ , I allow Eren the ability to move his own body. I help him back up to his feet so we may how to each other and our group leaders as everyone applauds us. Hange announces that our match lasted under twelve minutes, so Levi would be receiving forty dollars from the bet he made with them. We watch other people make exchanges.

I feel a hand land gently on the top of my head. Turning my head, I find the loser of our match smiling proudly down at me. His hand moves and ruffles my hair to make it look as if I just got out of bed. I fix my hair with a soft whine.

"You were great, Arm'," he says, this time using my nickname. "I never knew you were capable of technical magic similar to mine."

"Seems more that my _Chessboard Rotation_ clashes with your _Coordinate_ ," I respond. "And I must say, experiencing _Coordinate_ for myself was definitely something worth remembering. You have my gratitude for that."

"The pleasure's all mine." His right arm around my shoulders, we walk towards the sidelines to rest. "So, you're the winner of the bet. What do you wanna do? Just please for the love of god, don't ask for something too pricey; I only have so much money to spend."

I wasn't sure when I lifted my right hand to intertwine my fingers with the one resting on my shoulder. When I realize it, I feel the urge to pull it away, but he doesn't seem to mind being this close to me. Matter of fact, we tend to be this close to each other whenever we spend time together. Sometimes I throw my legs over his while we're sitting in his dorm, and other times he rests his head on my lap while we're reading or having a casual conversation. We get caught up in conversations about the littlest things and make them sound like a big deal to the point our friends can't comprehend why those topics are brought up. There's never a dull moment with him. It excites me and my magic.

"Tired, Arm'?"

"A little, I guess."

"Hm. You tend to get clingy when you're tired even if it's just 'a little'." _Oh my god, am I really?_ I wonder. I avert my eyes from his face to hide mine near his neck. His pulse is slowly calming down from our match. "Maybe you should take a short nap, and we can discuss the terms of our bet when you're more awake."

"It's only 11 AM."

"So...?"

"... Fine."

We leave the others in the training center in the basement to go upstairs to my room on the third floor. He's been here enough times to memorize some parts of the house but still finds himself lost without me in certain parts, and I have to show him which door leads to my room for about the fifth time. Luckily I managed to clean my room enough that the stacks of books that could not fit on the bookcase and the papers on my desk looked too organized to be labeled a mess in case anyone from his group were to come inside.

He gently pushes me to sit down at the edge of my bed before he has me lie down. The back of my head and neck reach the pillow and I realize how tired I really am. I don't fight him when he tells me to stay there before he sets the jacket I removed earlier over my chest. My arms lie on top of it to keep from feeling restrained.

I expect him to leave, but he doesn't. Rather, he gently smiles down at me as he sits on the edge, making me scoot away so he wouldn't have to fall. Unlike when we first met, our staring at each other now is much more comfortable, but then he slides down to lie beside me. His body warmth emits from him and I tense up. We've been so close in contact before in different positions that I forgot the last time we merely lied down together like this. Not that I'm complaining now, though. I like this much better than any other sitting or lying position.

"Don't you call Isabel a hummingbird?" he speaks up.

"We refer to her movements as hummingbird-like," I clarify. "But yeah, she is a hummingbird on her own; she's constantly full of energy, moving from place to place when she's able to move freely. Once she sprained her ankle and somehow she was still able to sprint around the house with the help of her teleportation abilities."

He chuckles softly. "You're sort of like a hummingbird, too, in my opinion." We tilt our heads to the side to stare at each other. Our noses brush by just the tips. "Always trying to find a way out of a problem, not giving up easily, quick thinking with movement to match - that's what makes you a hummingbird. Plus, what makes hummingbirds so amazing is that it takes so much effort to catch only one." His smile turns into a serious line. I know there and then what he's going to talk to me about next. "Actual hummingbirds always have a reason for flying, though. If one hummingbird didn't feel the will to fly, why is he still flying?"

"Maybe he's flying because he's accepted that one day, he'll get caught mid-flight and his wings will be ripped away from him. If he stops flying out of not being able to accept that, he won't understand that his future will remain the same nonetheless."

"Armin-"

I place my right hand over his left, silencing him. "Those who can't sacrifice anything will never be able to bring change to anything. You have to be willing to give up all you got, even your own humanity when push comes to shove... but I never got to choose how much I've been willing to give up. _Project Element_ tore my wings off my back, took my humanity away without any mercy, and gave me new wings that I'm not familiar with. I can use them just fine now, but now I'm nothing but an escaped test subject. I'm the government's mutant - all Elementals are.

"For a long time, I've admired the people around me who were able to make sacrifices, like the way Erwin, Levi, and Hange made sacrifices to help us all escape from _that place_. So, it's unfortunate to say that we've never truly escaped it because we carry their sins on our shoulders simply by living with them. Even our group leaders have come to settling down as if what happened to us won't change how we'll turn out in the future and it sometimes makes me reevaluate how strongly I look up to them."

Doesn't he understand that there's no escape? We've only escape the center of the government's game but the entire country is their battlefield. They took us and made us into pawns, now sitting ducks for them to shoot at whenever they feel like it. We're all going to be found sooner or later and now I'm waiting for when they finally make their move. Elementals are powerful, but we're still being controlled as long as we exist.

At least back _there_ , as horrible as it was, we had an idea of when or how we would die if we stayed. Most of us in my group probably lost sight of that upon escaping, blinded by the idea of freedom that was never ours. I was once blinded just like them.

Green eyes pierce my blue ones when I lay them back on Eren. He's scooted even closer to me. We twist our bodies completely to face each other, our chests close to touching. My eyes follow the hand reaching down to pick up the extra blanket at the foot of the bed. The soft, blue cotton soon covers us up to our necks, encasing us in warmth which relaxes me further. That must have been his intention.

"You're... definitely a hummingbird," is all he says at first. There's a pause before he continues. "No matter what, I'm going to make you happy enough that you'll forget whatever else you're thinking about that's making you all negative like that. I don't care about changing your mind, but if that could somehow happen, that'd be great for both of us, because I don't want to watch someone as capable of amazing things as you go off like this." His left arm wraps around my torso and crawls up my back until he began massaging the area between my shoulder blades. "I care about you, y'know."

This was not helping my stupid, naive crush at all. Nonetheless, I muster up an unfaltering reply. "We'll see, I guess." It was short and vague, but he seemed to be satisfied when I find a smile back on his face.

"Let's get some shut-eye. We can talk about what you want to do about your winnings from our bet over dinner later. Afternoon, Armin."

I see him close his eyes before I do. We breathe in and out slowly, in time with each other. My chest rises and deflates steadily but my heart is still trying to calm down.

From what I've learned about these birds, the average hummingbird can fly at a maximum speed of thirty miles per hour. He calls me a hummingbird, and I don't fully understand why but him calling me that gives me peace. He basically called hummingbirds as humans - or what used to be human - hard to catch by comparing me to them. I guess the reason why I liked that comparison so much was because no matter how fast I try to fly from him, and I undoubtedly will sooner or later, he's telling me he'll still do whatever it takes to catch me.

... Hope is definitely for suckers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Favorite Part(s):
> 
> \- Chessboard Rotation description  
> \- Coordinate description  
> \- Anything involving hummingbirds
> 
> Honorable Mention(s):
> 
> \- Isabel vs. Sayram  
> \- Nifa making her hair catch fire


End file.
